The multilateral trading
system came into being on 1 January 1948 when the General Agreement
on Tariffs and Trade (GATT 1947) was signed by its 23 founding
members.1 The
GATT’s membership expanded considerably in the
following decades as many countries gained their independence and
took over the rights and obligations of membership that metropolitan
powers had accepted on their behalf, and others negotiated their
accession to the treaty. All the Members of GATT 1947 decided by the
end of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations (1986-1994) to take
on the greatly enlarged rights and obligations of the new
organization they had negotiated — the World Trade Organization (WTO),
which came into force on 1 January 1995 with 128 original Members.2
While these accounted for an extremely large percentage of world
trade, many economies remained outside the multilateral system.
Since its inception, WTO Members have repeatedly stressed their
commitment to making the WTO universal in scope and coverage — an
ambition shared by a large number of governments outside the system.

Since 1995 another 23
governments have negotiated their accession to the WTO, which now
has 151 Members.3 This is an endorsement of the principles on which
the organization is based and the validity of its disciplines. The
new Members are, in the order in which they acceded:

The detailed statistics
contained in Annex 1
demonstrate that these new Members have made a
significant contribution to the WTO’s goal of becoming a truly
universal body. Based on these statistics, the percentage of world
trade accounted for by Members of the organization has risen from
86.8 percent to 96.4 percent and the percentage of GDP from 89.4
percent to 96.7 percent. Population figures are equally relevant and
important. Whereas original Members accounted for only 66.0 percent
of the world’s population, the accession of the new Members has
brought this figure up to 90.1 percent.

The WTO has shown itself
flexible enough to accommodate Members of very different economic
sizes, at all stages of economic development. The five which are
largest in trade terms (EC, USA, China, Japan and Canada) account
for as much as 68 percent of the trade of all WTO Members and the
five smallest for less than 0.01 percent of that trade. Its
membership includes not only all the wealthiest countries in the
world but also 32 of the 50 least-developed countries (LDCs).4

There are at present another
32 governments which have applied to accede to the WTO (in
alphabetical order):

1. Afghanistan (LDC)

17. Lebanon

2. Algeria

18. Liberia (LDC)

3. Andorra

19. Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

4. Azerbaijan

20. Montenegro

5. Bahamas

21. Russian Federation

6. Belarus

22. Samoa (LDC)

7. Bhutan (LDC)

23. Sao Tomé and Principe (LDC)

8. Bosnia and Herzegovina

24. Serbia

9. Cape Verde (LDC)

25. Seychelles

10. Comoros (LDC)

26. Sudan (LDC)

11. Equatorial Guinea (LDC)

27. Syria

12. Ethiopia (LDC)

28. Tajikistan

13. Iran

29. Ukraine

14. Iraq

30. Uzbekistan

15. Kazakhstan

31. Vanuatu (LDC)

16. Lao People’s Democratic
Republic (LDC)

32. Yemen (LDC)

The above account for 4
percent of world trade, 3.3 percent of world GDP but as much as 8.4
percent of world population. Their membership of the WTO would bring
the coverage of the organization to 99.95 percent of world trade,
99.98 percent of world GDP and 99.35 percent of world population.
Thirteen of these applicants are LDCs.

To date, only 13 member
States of the United Nations have not applied to accede to the WTO.
They are, in alphabetical order:

1. Eritrea (LDC)

8. Palau

2. Kiribati (LDC)

9. San Marino

3. People’s Democratic Republic of
Korea

10. Somalia (LDC)

4. Marshall Islands

11. Timor-Leste (LDC)

5. Micronesia

12. Turkmenistan

6. Monaco

13. Tuvalu (LDC

7. Nauru

Together, these States
account for 0.05 percent of total world trade, 0.03 percent of world
GDP and 0.70 percent of world population. Five are LDCs.

These statistics give a good
idea of the remaining scope for accession to the WTO.5
About a
quarter of UN members are still not Members of the organization.
Most of these are small in economic terms, but they are home to some
580 million people — 18 are LDCs. Only one, the Russian Federation,
has more than 1 percent of world trade.

Annex 1 contains an overview
of these findings and the detailed statistics on which they are
based.

Notes:

1. “Contracting
Parties” back to text2. See Marrakesh Agreement
Establishing the World Trade Organization, Article XI, Original
Membership. The original Members included the member States of the
European Communities (EC) and the EC themselves. The WTO legal texts
refer to the EC not the European Union as the Union does not have a
legal personality.
Though not original Members, the General Council gave Granada, Papua
New Guinea, Qatar, St. Kitts and Nevis, and the United Arab Emirates
additional time to complete the negotiation of their Schedules.
These countries acceded to the WTO after 1 January 1995 under the
special procedures established by the General Council (WTO document
WT/L/30). back to text3. August 2007. back to text4. As defined by the United Nations. back to text5. As noted below, some separate customs territories may also accede
to the WTO. back to text

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